Museum Celebrates the Women of Wall Street

These past two years have not been kind to the women on Wall Street. Of course, they have not been very kind to anyone. But women executives, a minority in this male-dominated world, have suffered some especially high-profile setbacks.

Nonetheless, women will show up in force next Tuesday for the opening reception for the new “Women on Wall Street” exhibit at the Museum of American Finance. It has generated a lot of interest. “I can’t remember selling out an opening reception,” said Kristin Aguilera, a spokeswoman for the museum. She said they capped the registration at 250 people.

In many ways, the historical figures have the most striking stories. Many made their mark when Wall Street was more insular and misogynistic than it is now. They include a first lady, a self-proclaimed presidential candidate, and the world’s richest (and most miserly) woman.

In 1975 her company, Siebert & Company, became the nation’s first discount brokerage. She became the superintendent of banks for the state of New York in 1966. She remains president of Siebert & Company.

Victoria Claflin Woodhull
Considered a feminist born a century ahead of her time, Victoria Claflin Woodhull is most famous for her declaration to run for the United States presidency in 1872, decades before women could vote. Born in 1838, she also made a fortune with her sister as the first female stockbrokers with their firm, Woodhull, Claflin & Company, which was set up with help from Cornelius Vanderbilt, to whom they were spiritual and financial advisers. (In addition, her sister was rumored to be having an affair with Vanderbilt). The sisters were a media sensation, attracting labels such as as the “Queens of Finance” and the “Bewitching Brokers.”

Using the money from her brokerage days, the sisters set up a short-lived though highly controversial newspaper called Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly, which published articles on taboo subjects like
sex education, free love, women’s suffrage and licensed prostitution. The articles prompted calls for her arrest.

She parlayed her inheritance into a remarkable fortune — estimated at $100 million upon her death in 1916 — with strategies that would make Warren E. Buffett proud: conservative investments, substantial cash reserves and a cool head amid turmoil. During the financial panic of 1907, she lent vast amounts of money to hard-pressed individuals.

Before their wedding, she also had her future husband renounce claim to her money (an early prenup?). She was remarkable for her frugality during the Gilded Age, an era of excess. For example, she spent her 77th birthday clipping coupons.

Abigail Smith Adams
Married to a man who eventually became the second president of the United States, Abigail Adams was left alone to manage the farm and handle the family’s affairs, since her husband was often away on state business. When her husband, John Adams, wanted to buy a neighboring farm, she argued that buying depreciated government bonds was a better investment. She was right. Although all of Abigail’s property legally belonged to John under New England’s coverture laws, she set aside “pin money” to buy the bonds, often through an uncle who acted as a trustee for her.

Adams’s financial acumen — among her other savvy attributes — propelled her husband’s career. However her investment activities were one of the few sore points in the highly documented partnership.

The Museum of American Finance will offer walking tours of the exhibit on June 20 and July 21 at 1 p.m. The tours meet at the museum and cost $15 per person, which includes admission to the museum.

According to the two biographies of Hetty Green, “The Day They Shook The Plum Tree” and “Hetty Green-The Witch of Wall Street,” she spent her entire life trying unsuccessfully to break her father’s will so she could manage the money in her trust fund herself.
All of the subsequent money she accrued was earned entirely on her own.

If you get these books at the library read “Witch of Wall Street” first.
That tells Hetty’s Life
Then read “Plum Tree” as that tells where the money went after she passed on
.Both very interesting reads.

Labeling Hetty Green as a miser is both inaccurate and another form of discrimination against women who are powerful on Wall Street. She’s successful, extremely powerful and frugal. There are stories of her n the Wall Street Journal about her throwing lavish parties and forking out $400 for beauty treatment. I don’t see this as miserly behavior at all.

I really think history should be kinder to a woman who, against all odds, has shrewder financial acumen than all the men on Wall Street put together. Perhaps then we’ll have a better chance of ending our own discrimination against women working in our financial world.

Eeling
You’d better read “The Witch of Wall Street” and “The Day They Shook The Plum Tree.”
Her son got a broken leg when he was hit by a horse and carriage on the street, and he had a lifetime limp because Hetty took him all over town to see which doctor would charge her the least to set the broken leg.
She married her only daughter off to an elderly man who had a little money, and she made him sign a pre nup, also.
She wore the same black dress that turned green from age constantly, and when the daughter got married she found a cleaners that would only clean a couple of feet up from the filthy hem, and just charge her half price for doing it.
People don’t have money by spending it.
As I’ve already said, read “Hetty Green-The Witch of Wall Street, ” and “The Day They Shook The Plum Tree.”
Both are fascinating reading

I wonder, does Ms Lee know the meaning of the phrase “clipping coupons” in this context? Or, if she does, is she having a joke on her readers?

One hundred years ago, “clipping coupons” was the physical means by which investors claimed interest from bonds. Other than the fact that Hetty Green was “working”, rather than celebrating, on her 77th birthday, the “clipping coupons” anecdote is no evidence of “frugality”.

(Note to NYT site maintainers: in the excerpt linked to “clipping coupons”, there seems to be an OCR error. What is rendered “black of bonds” in the linked excerpt appears to be the more sensible “block of bonds” in the PDF image of the original article.)

If you’re not going to read the books then I’ll tell you the plot.
She got a complimentary desk from the bank but, she would sit in the middle of the floor opening her mail and would put the ones without checks in one pile, and the ones with checks in the other.
She also brought her lunch with her every morning and would put the constainer of oatmeal on the bank’s radiator to stay warm until lunch time.
I brown bagged it at Warner Brothers Pictures with a manilla envelope but, at least I dressed like Madison Avenue, and my lunch was always a leaky greasy tuna fish sandwich.

If you did read The Witch of Wall Street, you will also know that Hetty Green was a trained nurse. She tried to nurse her son’s leg back to health. Her reluctance to go to doctors is due to her various incidents dealing with doctors who think she should pay a premium just because she was a rich woman. Is that discrimination?

In the book, read page 149-150 and I quote, “All the evidence seems to indicate that she worried over his injury until she was almost made sick. If she did not return to Dr. Sayre and Bellevue this might been because she was dissatisfied with the treatment. She consulted many physicians, among them a famous orthopedic specialist of Baltimore, Dr. McLean” (Sparkes & Moore, 1935, p. 150).

In Wall Street Journal, June 6, 1908, it was written, “These [New York’s high society] veterans remember Mrs. Green when she held a position unsurpassed in New York’s society, and when she was regarded in many respects as the most accomplished hostess, excelling in grace, dignity and courtesy and a certain charm of hospitality (p. 4).

There is also an article in the Wall Street Journal dated Nov 26, 1910 where Hetty Green’s son (yes! the one she supposedly didn’t care for when his leg was injured) said in an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, “Much has been printed about my mother that is untrue…the Greens care very little about dress.” Edward Howland Green also describes his mother as, “besides an extraordinary memory, my mother has great wisdom, and a clear and sure vision. She has never made any money in speculation – the Greens don’t speculate. She has been what you might call a one-bank man.” (p. 6).

Mrs Green also gave a lavish ten-course dinner for twenty at the Plaza’s state apartments according to the New York Times (May 27, 1908, p. 1).

Did you also know that Mrs. Green was once hailed as “the Queen of Wall Street”? (New York Times, May 27, 1887, p. 5).

How did the Queen become the Witch? Why is a successful woman financier whose wealth rivals that of the Vanderbilts and Rockerfellers labeled as a Witch and goes down in history famous for the way she looked, the way she dressed and what was in her lunch box rather than how smart and shrewd she was. She was lending money to New York City when no one else had cash on hand and buying up large parcels of land that make up Michigan Ave in Chicago.

This is such an interesting discussion. Thank you for your interest in Hetty Green. She’s an extraordinary woman and she should have a place in American history that is more than just being the frugal, dowdy looking witch.

By the way, did you also know that in our current financial sector, women are still discriminated against for the way they dress? In a 2007 article in the Wall Street Journal, Brinkley interviewed women financiers on Wall Street and reported that whereas men can wear business casual khakis, women must be conservative and careful with their choice of clothes (p. D1).

If anyone is interested in the above articles on Mrs. Green, please feel free to email me at eelingj at gmail dot com
I will be happy to send you the articles in pdf format.

I will be at the reception tomorrow and look forward to meeting not only Muriel Siebert, but Isabel Benham, who was one of Wall Street’s premier railroad analysts. Each of the women in the exhibit is discussed here:

What's Next

Looking for New York Today?

New York Today is still going strong! Though no longer on City Room, New York Today continues to appear every weekday morning, offering a roundup of news and events for the city. You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com or in the morning, on The New York Times homepage or its New York section. You can also receive it via email.

Lookin for Metropolitan Diary?

Metropolitan Diary continues to publish! Since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has been a place for New Yorkers, past and present, to share odd fleeting moments in the city. We will continue to publish one item each weekday morning and a round-up in Monday's print edition. You can find the latest entries at nytimes.com/diary and on our New York section online.

About

City Room®, a news blog of live reporting, features and reader conversations about New York City, has been archived. Send questions or suggestions by e-mail.